Science Education

Arrangement Games

Oh my . . . it’s been a while since I posted anything. I had such good intentions last semester, but never found the time to sit down and write. Over the next little while, I’m going to go back and post about cool things that happened last year, but for now, I thought I’d jump back in by moving forward with some content that is timely for the beginning of a new semester: arrangement games. This isn’t anything particularly new or groundbreaking – people have been doing these things for years – but I thought I’d do a quick round up of some of the ones that I find work particularly well.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago

iNaturalist Ambassador

The global science platform iNaturalist recently started an Ambassador Program, and I’m pleased to announce that, as of September 2025, I’ve been accepted as part of their first cohort of ambassadors. iNaturalist is a community science platform where users can record and share observations of plants, fungi, and animals to Read more

By Wendy, ago

Fairfield Osborn Field Trip

I had a super fun time today doing something old, and something new! For the first time, I took some of my College of Marin students on an actual off-campus field trip, and we went to a place I have visited countless times before: Sonoma State’s Fairfield Osborn Preserve. I offered this optional weekend trip to my Introduction to Biology students for extra credit, and it was a fantastic day!

(more…)
By Wendy, ago

California Tiger Salamander Research

Earlier this month, SSU graduate student Jesse Schmieg offered my Vertebrate Biology students an amazing experience: my students were hosted at Jesse’s field site, where they are researching the interactions between larval tiger salamanders and predaceous diving beetles in seasonal pools. Our main task of the day: to help Jesse set up this season’s experiment. This involved “bisecting” each vernal pools into two halves, using mesh fencing. Throughout the season, Jesse and their team of research assistants will remove predaceous beetle larvae from one half of each pool, while leaving the beetle population undisturbed in the other half. Then, they will perform monitoring to see if there is any difference in the salamander populations related to the removal of these insects.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago

Warm Springs Fish Hatchery

For one of the first Vertebrate Biology field trips this year, I took my students to the Warm Springs Fish Hatchery, where we were given a fantastic tour by Ben and David. I first came to this hatchery in 2011, when I was a student in this same class (taught back then by Derek Girman). I remember being kind of bummed by the idea of visiting a fish hatchery – I thought it would be B O R I N G – but I ended up loving it so much! Super interesting, and amazing to see the way these fish populations are being supported by the work they do there. Now, it is wonderful to be able to bring my own students here for this experience.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago
Bobcat

Wildlife Camera Spring 2023

April 7 through May 2, 2023

My Vertebrate Biology students deployed a wildlife camera on April 7th, which I retrieved on May 20. Water was flowing in the creek throughout the entire deployment. The only unfortunate thing is that I must have set the photo resolution too high, as my 2GB memory card ran out of space on May 2. But even so, I was excited to see the variety of wildlife that we caught on the camera. This entry features just some of my favorite shots. All my wildlife camera photos (from 2016 to present) can be found on wildlifeinsights.org.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago

Vertebrate Biology BioBlitz

May 20, 2022
09:00 to 11:30

Rather than giving my Vertebrate Biology students a conventional written final exam, I decided to do something more adventurous: have them participate in a BioBlitz on campus so I could assess their knowledge of local wildlife and identification techniques. For anyone not familiar with the term, a BioBlitz is an effort to document biodiversity in a given location during a certain period of time. While the structure of these events can vary, the idea is to identify as many species as possible in the time you are given.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago
Northern Pacific Rattlesnake

Vertebrate Biology Field Trip to Fairfield Osborn Preserve

For the first time since COVID, I’m able to take my students on field trips again, and we had a fantastic one yesterday. I took my upper division Vertebrate Biology class to one of our university’s preserves: the Fairfield Osborn Preserve on Sonoma Mountain. One of the preserve’s researchers and naturalists – Julie Wittmann – was our host for the day, and our primary target was herpetofauna (reptilian vertebrates and amphibians). We started out by surveying some of the coverboards that were established in 2015, and then we headed down to the creek to look for salamanders. All along the way, we saw AMAZING wildlife, with a couple of absolute highlights for the day.

(more…)
By Wendy, ago

Ecosystem Exploration

This week, I’m using some Virtual Field materials in one of my classes (Ecosystem Exploration: https://thevirtualfield.org/virtual…/ecosystem-exploration).

In addition to the questions provided with the videos, I’m going to ask them to do some additional field journaling, including sketches. Here are the two I drew as examples (based on the Mojave Desert video), to give them some inspiration. (They aren’t expected to render things as completely as the tortoise, but the level of detail in the plant illustration should be doable by everyone).

(more…)
By Wendy, ago